"And that's as much as I know." Kaji took a sip of his coffee after explaining everything to his former lover.
"And you decided to wait when it came to telling me about this?" Misato glared at him with her arms crossed.
"I wanted to, but certain things came up." Kaji noticed Misato was still glaring at him and raised his hands in defense. "It's the truth, Misato. I had every intention of telling you myself, but I couldn't get around to..."
"I don't mean that, you moron!" Misato raised her voice as she slammed her hands on the table and stood up. "Why didn't your dumbass tell me this before Asuka got here!?"
"I know you're going to hate this answer," Kaji put his arms down. "I was hoping this issue went away."
"What do you mean went away?" Misato raised an eyebrow.
"The last time Asuka had that happen before coming here was over a year ago." Kaji sighed. "I figured Asuka grew out of it, and I didn't have to worry about it. I didn't expect it to just come back out of the blue."
"I still think you should have told me from the start." Misato lowered her voice and sat back down. "It also would have been better than forcing Shinji into this predicament."
"Which I also feel bad about too." Kaji frowned. While Shinji did help Asuka, he knew it wasn't something Shinji should have been forced into. "Believe me. I never intended to have him dealing with something that was my job."
"I believe you." Misato sighed as she crossed her arms. "Despite being an ass, you seem to care about Shinji."
"He's a good kid." Kaji smiled. "He reminds me of myself sometimes."
"Hopefully, he's better with girls than you." Misato squeezed the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, I'm sure Asuka will have the same complaints as you when she gets older." Kaji laughed, making Misato's face turn red.
"I swear I will shoot you one of these days." Misato clenched her fist as he continued to laugh. She took a breath before continuing. "Anyways, like I told Shinji, we can't ignore this. It's bad enough he's already involved in it, but we can't depend on him to always help Asuka when she gets like that."
"I know, and I think I might have some ideas on how to help Asuka." Kaji smiled. "Thankfully, they can't go on their trip, which might give us an opening to help Asuka."
"And what are these ideas you have?"
While Misato and Kaji were discussing how to help Asuka, she and Shinji had just finished their meal. The sun was now close to setting, and the two were unsure what to do next.
"Well, I have to hand it to you." Asuka rubbed her belly as they were walking. "You have a gift when it comes to delicious food."
"I'm happy to hear that." Shinji smiled as he walked by her side. "I take it you've really enjoyed going out today."
"Well, it's not as good as going on a trip." Asuka sighed as she put her hands behind her head. She smiled before continuing. "But I appreciate you doing your best to cheer me up."
Shinji just smiled as he heard Asuka complain and then compliment him. While Asuka could still be rough with him, he started to see a kinder side to her as he talked to her more. However, he frowned as he thought about Asuka's problem and realized he still didn't know much about her.
"What's wrong?" Shinji snapped back to his senses and turned over to look at Asuka. "You looked gloomy all of a sudden. Don't tell me you're upset you didn't cheer me up more."
"No, it's not that." Shinji looked down.
"Well, spit it out already." Asuka stopped as she turned completely towards him and placed her hands on her hips. Shinji stopped as well.
"You really want to know the truth?" Shinji sighed as he turned to face her.
"Yes, you baka, I literally just told you to tell me." Asuka kept staring at him.
"Fine." Shinji took a breath. "The truth is that I..."
As Shinji looked at Asuka, he didn't see the typical redhead that yelled at him to do whatever she wanted. He saw Asuka looking concerned. Instead of her glare, she frowned as she looked at him with her eyes wide open. She also didn't have a fist clench like whenever she would threaten him. He also realized that when Asuka told him to spit it out, she didn't yell at him like whenever she ordered him around.
"Well?" Asuka chimed in, making Shinji snap back to his senses again. "What's the truth?"
Shinji took a breath before continuing.
"The truth is, I had a lot of fun today, and I'm sorry that I couldn't make you enjoy it more than you would have enjoyed that trip."
"Oh." Asuka sighed as she looked at him. "Well, like I said, I..."
"I'm not done." Asuka's eyes shot open as Shinji interrupted her.
"Did he just..." Asuka thought to herself as she kept looking at Shinji.
"I realized I got lucky with a lot of the stuff we did. Chances are this would have ended badly, and that's mostly cause I don't know you outside of school and piloting the Eva."
"So what?" Asuka raised an eyebrow. "I still had fun, so what's it matter if..."
"That's why I want to get to know you more, Asuka." Shinji put his hand to his chest. "The real you."
"Wha... what do you mean the real me?" Asuka stuttered as her face blushed.
"I mean, who you are outside of the Eva and school." Shinji lowered his hand as he took another breath. "I want to know who you are outside of that so I don't have to rely on luck to try to cheer you up in the future."
There was silence between them for a few minutes. In Shinji's head, he was scared to death, wondering if Asuka would kill him for saying this. However, Asuka's head was in complete shock.
"The real me?" Asuka thought as she looked down. "No one's ever told me they wanted to know the real me..."
"Asuka?" It was Asuka's turn to be snapped back to reality by Shinji. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Asuka sighed. "Just..."
"Just what?" Shinji raised an eyebrow.
"Just..." Asuka took a breath before putting on her typical smile. "I'm just happy that you realized you don't know me and are smart enough to ask me to tell you about my great life."
Shinji sighed as he looked down, thinking it was pointless.
"If it helps you make me happy, then I have no problem telling you things about me." Asuka smiled and held her hands up.
"Wait, really?" Shinji looked up at Asuka.
"Of course." Asuka grabbed his wrist. "Now that we have that settled, let's head back."
"Oh, okay." Shinji sighed as he started walking with Asuka. He smiled as she walked before him, still holding his wrist. Mostly she did that to hide a similar smile on her face.
A/N: New chapter. Honestly have been trying to work Kaji and Misato back during this short arc, but I wasn't sure how to put them back in. Hoping you enjoyed seeing both of them being concerned for Shinji and Asuka. As always, favorite/follow if you enjoy this story, and leave a review telling me what all of you think of the story so far.